about to go into the medical billing and coding field - NEED ADVICE

about to go into the medical billing and coding field - NEED ADVICE

Hi- I am about to go into the medical billing and coding field, and I just want some opinions on wheather or not I should waste my money and time going into this field . I was just wondering if anyone thinks I would get a job when I get my certificate next year. Is it a good possibility or am I going to have a hard time finding something. I won't be starting until July and I will be going to Dover Buisness College. Please if any one could give me some information who is in the field, I would really appreciate it. Thank you so much .

I am going to be very honest here...chances are that you will not find a job doing coding or billing right out of school, or any time soon after that. I frequent another message board that is full of people who just got their degrees in coding/billing, or have had them for several years, and none of them can find jobs. They can't even get unpaid externships/internships. Most of them are applying for any job in the medical field, including reception and filing jobs, and even those are hard to come by. It is very rare that I will see someone fresh out of school get a job doing coding and billing. Most jobs want someone with at least a year or two of experience, which is frustrating to those who are trying to get that experience, but no one will hire them.

Now, that doesn't mean there won't be a job for you when you are done with your schooling. I am just saying that the odds of it happening are not great. You definitely need to be willing to apply for ANY job that will get your foot in the door with a doctor/hospital/clinic, even if it doesn't relate to billing or coding. You need to be willing to network like crazy, join various local chapters of billing and coding groups in your area and on the internet, and send out resumes everywhere you can.

I think these certificate programs make it sound like you will get hired right away and make good money, or be able to work from home no problem, but that is simply not the case in the real world. There is a glut of people with degrees in billing and coding, and not nearly enough jobs.

There may be nothing in your area and you may have tons of jobs available. One day there is nothing and an hour later something opens up and as quick as it opens, it closes. You could be in line to buy milk and that leads to a job. '

I have the proper training, tons of certifications, and at least 20 years of experience. Anyone who looks at my resume says you have no problems getting hired. On the contrary. I get all no thank yous. Ive been unemployed since 2008. The reason i get the no thank yous: You're overqualified. Does this makes me upset? Nope. What it tells me is that they have no clue what they want. They have the Goldilocks syndrome. They dont want someone new, someone with training and certification but has no experience and they dont want someone with the training, the certification and experience. Just remember, with every no you get, you are one step closer to a yes. Make sure you are financially and mentally ready for your journey.

You never want to go into a job without the proper training. In your training, you will find that there is so much to know. It gets worse when you get into the real world because you have insurance companies saying no, patients and doctors coming after you, you have so much pressure to accomplish what is expected of you and sometimes you wonder why you got into this crazy profession, but you can do it because you were trained to do it. We do it because it is something we love to do. We enjoy the pressure, and the challenges. We enjoy taking an insurance no and turning it into a check. We enjoy helping a patient. In my opinon, you want the best training. contact the MAB itself. You want to be the best, learn from the best of the best. One last piece of advice: Never give up! Much success

I am not a lawyer. My post is not legal advice. You are free to seek a lawyer at your own expense for legal answers. Your asking for my layperson guidance holds me harmless and indemnifies me and the MAB against any and all lawsuits. We are not an approving agency. My name is, and I approve this message! Im sorry, Im not in at the moment, at the tone, please leave a message.... BEEP!

I'm just going to add one thing if this is something you really want to do then I would say do it. It's not easy but if you're good very good the need is there.
I've had interns come in that weren't worth a whole lot in terms of knowledge others that I helped prep with a billing/coding test after going through some programs (not MAB) that failed miserably before an interview got to the interview and failed the pre-employment test. So if you're good well educated then you have a better chance of getting a job.

You're not just going to walk into an office or hospital and get a job just because you passed a course it's like any other job you have to be qualified and most places will test you. You have to have the drive and as stated above probably start at a lower level unless you get lucky or you're extremely good and have been taught well.

It takes a lot of patience and perseverance to find a job in
a depressed economy. With some hard work and luck, you should be able to find a
work-from-home job if you research your career of interest well enough and ask
about openings in your area. Be careful of spammers and scammers. Try careers
like medical transcriptioning or medical billing and coding. You may need
vocational training for such professions, like the online programs offered at
CareerStep. These programs are also quite affordable, with the link removed by moderator costing less than $2700. Good luck with your
search!

Once again, some people may not have good intentions when they post a response. Some do so to place advertisements for something they're selling or for an employer they work for where they are in the sales department.

This forum has had a no advertisement without approval and no unauthorized links policy for the last 12 years. Links to a governmental website such as Medicare or a State legislature is usually allowed, but someone will come along and post a response:

I agree whole hartedly. YOu really should use this program located at www.fakelink.com or use our services at www.fakecompany.com. Some links may be legitimate, but some may be hazardous to your system. Hackers post links where if you click the link, it places a virus or trojan on your computer so that the hacker can take over your computer or access your private information as a means of accessing your banking or to steal your identity. WE DO NOT APPROVE ANY UNAUTHORIZED LINKS SUCH AS WHAT THE PERSON ABOVE POSTED. YOU PLACE YOURSELF AND YOUR COMPUTER AT RISK. THE MEDICAL ASSOCIATION OF BILLERS ASSUMES NO LIABILITY IF YOU MAKE A FREEDOM OF CHOICE DECISION TO CLICK AN UNAUTHORIZED LINK.

The Medical Association of Billers offers excellent training in medical billing, so when someone comes along and posts an unauthorized post about training that their company offers and a link to their training is a slap in the face to the MAB. It would be similar to a Pepsi employee posting about Pepsi on the Coke website. I am sure one of the moderators will delete the above post. BUT, AGAIN, DO NOT CLICK THE LINK ABOVE. WE DO NOT KNOW THE PERSON WHO POSTED IT OR THEIR TRUE INTENTIONS.

On a personal note, when I see things like this, it turns me off to what the person intended. If they are willing to go against the rules of the forum, what else are they willinfg to do. The website owners they are advertising may not know what is happening. The website owners may not have approved this. It makes me wonder if the post is a violation of the Fair Trade Practices Act. It could also be a violation of anti-spam laws. The best advice is do not click any unauthorized and unapproved links. YOu do not know the true intentions of the poster.

I am not a lawyer. My post is not legal advice. You are free to seek a lawyer at your own expense for legal answers. Your asking for my layperson guidance holds me harmless and indemnifies me and the MAB against any and all lawsuits. We are not an approving agency. My name is, and I approve this message! Im sorry, Im not in at the moment, at the tone, please leave a message.... BEEP!

This user seems to do nothing but post garbage responses to insert the same link to the website. On other sites people post garbage posts with links to sell products or pharmaceuticals.

I guess they dont know that they open the company they're trying to send people to lawsuits.

I guess they get paid per person who clicks the link.

There is an old law called Gerards law of 250. This was back before internet, and social media. Joe Gerard was a highly successful used car salesman. His "law" which is used as a training tool, basically says, for every person you interact with, you interact with 250 other people, so when it comes to customer service, if you treat one person incorrectly, you are doing that to 250 other people because that one person tells someone else who tells someone else ad infinatum. Now, with internet and social media, I can say with confidence, that this law is now the law of 2,000,000,000. What happens here and now is all around the world in nanoseconds. When I see this, will I recommend the institution to my friends, my neighbors, and colleagues? Absolutely not. I will do the opposite. I will steer away any business, so their intention will only backfire. It opens a question in my mind, if this institution is willing to allow this to take place to advertise their program, how good is it and what else are they willing to do to get business? Are they there to take my money and leave me to fend for myself? Will I get the education I need to succeed in a new profession?

Several years ago, my wife and I were looking for a used car. We found one we liked. The website showed a car that looked brand new. They detailed the car to showroom shine and they cleaned the engine so it looked better than new. We bought it and had to replace the engine because the car broke down on the way home. When told, the dealer just said the car was sold as is. Yes, we didnt do our homework as we should have. We did try to check the car using highly advertised informational websites, but that didnt help. The word got out about the dealer and where they are located is now an empty lot. I dont know if they found a better or newer place to do their shady sales but at least they werent in business where they once were. They dug their own grave because the word got out about them. The State couldnt help because they stayed just a millimeter on the side of the law. We see this all the time with shady businesses. You see this via complaints when someone sees an advertisement where you can get a second item for free BUUUUTTT, you have to pay separate shipping and handling. That isnt free. Some people complain about paying many times what the cost was advertised. As they say fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. I dont buy bupkiss with anything I see on an infomercial. I may like what I see, but I go to buy it at Walmart, Walgreens or the mall Seen on TV store. Again, when someone comes here to say, Hey! you can take classes at XXXXX, go to blahblah blah website. It is a slap in the face to the MAB who also provides training. You dont stand in the lobby of Burger King with a sign telling everyone to go to McDonalds.

I am not a lawyer. My post is not legal advice. You are free to seek a lawyer at your own expense for legal answers. Your asking for my layperson guidance holds me harmless and indemnifies me and the MAB against any and all lawsuits. We are not an approving agency. My name is, and I approve this message! Im sorry, Im not in at the moment, at the tone, please leave a message.... BEEP!

I agree Steve we've been warning visitors not to click on these links, if someone chooses to advertise in a less than professional way that should show that the business they're advertising probably won't be someone you'd want to to do business with.

We have a policy here for no advertising whatsoever including advertising for billing and coding classes. MAB is generous enough to provide a totally free forum to share ideas and assist others with questions for free no costs involved. The association offers excellent classes so trying to advertising for classes on the free forum shows the disregard these businesses have for doing things the right way.

If you want to advertise simply contact MAB there is a different website and do things the right way it gives some credence to your business. That includes billing services, products etc...

Well I do wish I had known about this site before I wasted the money in this field. I graduated 2pts under honors and still unable to get a job. Now because of the changes that get made each year, I am afraid I will not be able to now. The worst I have 3years experience with it. Although I was hired to do filing only I worked my way up to office assistant and billing assistant. Worked for a large medical office, which had 7 Dr's, 4 nursing homes, and lg hospital. Still no job. SUCKS!! You may get lucky, I hope so. Hate to see anybody else go in the hole for nothing. Good luck to you.

Our lives are filled with changes. Our profession, medical billing, constantly changes. Laws change, policies change, medical care changes. Accepting change isn't easy in some cases. Change is also a challenge. If you can make it through those challenges, you become better. One day, I was working two jobs, making sure that what I made paid the bills, made sure my family was taken care of, then literally overnight, my world crashed. My jobs are gone, my income is gone. Talk about a change. I could have felt sorry for myself and plunged into a deep dark hole, where I might not have left. But, I had to change. As a Medical Biller, Im used to change and I did change. I took what happened and used it to make myself better. I went out, visiting local practices, dropping off resume's and got a few responses, but now my age is a factor. My experience is a factor. No one wanted to hire someone as old as me, someone with my training, certifications, and experience. Im competing against the young kid coming out of school and there are more of them than me. I didn't allow that to bother me. So, how do I take a basket of lemons Ive been handed? I make orange juice. Do I give up? Do I feel sorry for myself? I still have a family to take care of. As someone once said, there is more than one way to defur a feline. I have to make adjustments. I have to look at what I have. I have to make a change. Im not where I once was. Im in a different place because where I once was is gone. I cant get younger, only older. Every day I get older I am at a disadvantage but Im not out of the game. I just have to be smarter than I was yesterday.

What do I have to face?

5-10 years of life left, maybe, but a meteor can come crashing through my roof and change that in a New York minute.

PPACA aka Obamacare. This is making changes to healthcare. Will it go away? We don't know. Its here and we have to get ready for it.

ICD-10: We have a year to get ready for this. Its a huge change but its not as scary as some want you to believe.

When you finish your training, it wont be easy to find a job. No one said it was going to be easy. Its going to be hard, but if you want something bad enough, you will work through the hard. If you give up, maybe this isn't something you were meant to have, this isn't the profession for you. Our profession is a do not give up profession. You will be fighting insurance companies, patients, and your own doctor. You want to be successful, no matter what you do, you cant give up, you cant say the heck with this. Giving up is easy. Sticking with something and working to succeed is hard. Doctors want and need someone who wont give up. If I gave up, I wouldn't be here today. I went through the pain of recovery. Im glad I did, because I did it for me. If Columbus gave up in 1492, he wouldn't have discovered Ohio and Georgia.

I am not a lawyer. My post is not legal advice. You are free to seek a lawyer at your own expense for legal answers. Your asking for my layperson guidance holds me harmless and indemnifies me and the MAB against any and all lawsuits. We are not an approving agency. My name is, and I approve this message! Im sorry, Im not in at the moment, at the tone, please leave a message.... BEEP!